(Corrects paragraph 5 to show Gary Shane is a consultant to BP,
not an executive)

By Krithika Krishnamurthy

June 7 (Reuters) - No pilot was required when the Aeryon
Scout took off into the leaden skies of Alaska to inspect a
stretch of oil pipeline. The miniature aircraft was guided by an
engineer on the ground, armed only with a tablet computer.

The 20-minute test flight, conducted by BP Plc last
fall, was a glimpse of a future where oil and gas companies in
the Arctic can rely on unmanned aircraft to detect pipeline
faults, at a fraction of the cost of piloted helicopter flights.

It could become reality as soon as 2015, when the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) opens up American skies for the
commercial use of unmanned aircraft, popularly known as drones.

While technical shortcomings and strict regulation are
likely to limit the use of drones in the near term, the rules
governing public airspace will be more relaxed in the wilderness
of Alaska than in the lower 48 states, industry experts say.

"We're going to take baby steps," said Gary Shane, a
consultant who works as a senior project manager for BP
Pipelines in North America. The company plans to deploy its
first drones in the Alaska North Slope within three years, he
told Reuters.

Laid end to end, the more than 300,000 miles (480,000 km) of
natural gas pipelines that crisscross the United States would
circumnavigate the planet 12 times. There's a lot of money to be
saved by reducing the number of manned flights on these routes.

A small, unmanned vehicle fitted with a heat-sensing camera
costs about $85,000, while it costs about $3,000 to send a
helicopter to monitor an oil pipeline for an hour, said Dave
Kroetsch, chief executive of drone manufacturer Aeryon Labs Inc.
Continued...